Read "Another for the Briar Rose" by William Morris online for free on Textopian. Full text with search, annotations, highlights, and AI-powered reading aids.
O treacherous scent, O thorny sight, / O tangle of world's wrong and right, / What art thou 'gainst my armour's gleam / But dusky cobwebs of a dream?
Beat down, deep sunk from every gleam / Of hope, they lie and dully dream; / Men once, but men no more, that Love / Their waste defeated hearts should move.
Here sleeps the world that would not love!
Let it sleep on, but if He move / Their hearts in humble wise to wait / On his new-wakened fair estate.
O won at last is never late!
Thy silence was the voice of fate; / Thy still hands conquered in the strife; / Thine eyes were light; thy lips were life.